ELITE, MORALITY, PROFIT-GAIN AND THE MERCENARY INDUSTRY
Today the privatization of wars by means of outsourcing has developed into a gigantic security industry. It has created companies who run private mercenary armies, such as Blackwater, which, due to its bad reputation, was first re-named Xe Services and currently styles itself most beautifully as Academi. The U.S. State Department employs in Afghanistan and the Iraq more mercenaries than the Pentagon keeps regular soldiers in both countries. The numbers are in the hundreds of thousands, and thus no less than a gigantic business deal with death.
Between 1994 and 2007 the United States has underwritten at least 3600 contracts for a total of 300 billion U.S. dollars doled out to twelve private U.S. military companies.
The April issue of Harpers Magazine published an article by Charles Glass on the emergence and tremendous growth of private security agencies since 9/11 with the title “The Warrior Class: The golden age of professional soldiers. “
At the end of this article there is a series of videos that former employees of Blackwater have leaked to Charles Glass. One of them is dated 1th April 2006 and taken from passenger seat of the fourth car of a convoy. Glass describes what can be seen as follows:
“While driving on a wide Boulewad in Baghdad, the first vehicle swings close to the edge of a road island. A woman in a black burqa is about to cross the road too. The vehicle rams the woman and hurls her lifeless body into the gutter. The cars slow down briefly, but do not stop. None of the passengers care whether the woman is dead or alive. Someone is heard saying ‘Oh my God!’ No one calls for help by radio. Most revolting, the picture is underlied with the song of AC/DC, Thunderstruck! ”
Glass writes that the video ends with the message: “In support of security, peace, freedom and democracy everywhere.”
This is a compilation of Blackwater videos which the criminals took themselves while driving through Baghdad. You can see how they shoot at every car that they deem too close. Either they open the doors and fire at everything that moves, or do the same from heliocopters. It’s unbelievable how arrogantly and criminally these paid mercenaries act against the Iraqi civilian population, deliberately killing innocent people.
The use of private mercenary armies allows the West to carry out world-wide imperialist “interventions” without showing their own flag. This is the means by which criminal governments can wage subversive wars without any approval from their own parliaments or any control by the media and international organizations. [Ed.: Right now there is evidence they are operating in Syria on behalf of the rebels.] They cannot be held accountable for their crimes and are not covered by any international Convention.
The Western armies produce the necessary manpower at a frightening pace. The British army alone dismisses 20,000 soldiers per year who at the end of their service sell their knowledge of how to kill most effectively for a lot of money to the security companies. About 50 of these companies operate in Afghanistan, meaning that the mercenary industry is booming. Charles Glass writes: “The golden times for freelance soldiers is now and the end is not in sight.”
NATO infiltrated Libya with a mercenary army to hide behind and tell the world hypocritically that “we have no ground troops in action.” Now the same Blackwater terrorists operate on behalf of NATO at the Turkish border, to be trained and then sent to Syria, there to spread havoc, fear and terror.
This fits in with the latest revelation by Seymour Hersh who reported in the magazine The New Yorker that in 2005 American special forces trained members of the exiled Iranian terrorist organization MEK, preparing them to commit contract murders and bomb attacks in Iran.The training happened on American soil, and despite the fact that the MEK is officially long since on the terrorist list of the U.S. State Department.
Small wonder that we, who are constantly being lied to by governments and media alike, feel like throwing up with disgust.